Techsurvivors

Archives => 2008 => Topic started by: gunug on June 19, 2008, 08:36:07 AM

Title: Firefox 3 Issues
Post by: gunug on June 19, 2008, 08:36:07 AM
This didn't take long but apparently there is a security hole in Firefox 3:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/19/...ty_found_1.html

I've also noticed that when I've updated from a previous Firefox on 3 different computers, 2 MAC's and 1 PC/XP, that I've had the bookmarks and history turn up in a scrambled fashion.  The information is all there it's just a little weird.  I've also had something turn up in history on the PC that wasn't there before I upgraded (I looked) and that I have no recollection of "ever" going to before (cue weird theramin music here).  It wasn't a "bad" place it was just an unfamiliar place!
Title: Firefox 3 Issues
Post by: sandyman on June 19, 2008, 09:49:19 AM
QUOTE(gunug @ Jun 19 2008, 02:36 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
This didn't take long but apparently there is a security hole in Firefox 3:

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/06/19/...ty_found_1.html

I've also noticed that when I've updated from a previous Firefox on 3 different computers, 2 MAC's and 1 PC/XP, that I've had the bookmarks and history turn up in a scrambled fashion.  The information is all there it's just a little weird.  I've also had something turn up in history on the PC that wasn't there before I upgraded (I looked) and that I have no recollection of "ever" going to before (cue weird theramin music here).  It wasn't a "bad" place it was just an unfamiliar place!


QUOTE
It wasn't a "bad" place it was just an unfamiliar place!


That's your story and I guess you'll be sticking to it  harhar.gif

Sandy
Title: Firefox 3 Issues
Post by: zampom on June 19, 2008, 06:23:16 PM
Speaking of issues .....  Didn't play around with any of the FF3 betas, since I was quite happy with FF2.  A couple of things bugged me about FF3 which made me give serious thought to abandoning it as my primary browser.  First, FF3 seemed to spike CPU use quite high and nibble away at my hard drive (pretty regular read/write cycles) with the browser launched but no windows active.  From what I read, this was most likely due to the urlclassifier sqlite files being examined/updated.  I found this pretty annoying on my fairly quite G5 iMac.  Deleting the urlclassifier files and unchecking the "Tell me if  the site I am visiting is a suspected attack site / forgery" options in the security preference tab has seemed to fix this.  The other issue deals with 1Password.  I am currently waiting to see if this is addressed on the 1Password board .... but, at least for me, there seems to be an annoying toolbar behavior with FF3/1Password 2.6.4(6814).  Since upgrading to FF3, anytime I go to restore password, wallet or identity information the entire browser toolbar area (navigation/bookmarks/1Password) flashes (as in disappears/reappears), apparently while 1Password obtains/refreshes restore items for the particular web page displayed. This behavior was not present in FF2, nor is it present in any of the other 1Password enabled browsers.  This happens regardless of whether I call 1Password via the button, toolbar, or contextual menu.  While, this might not make me want to abandon FF3, it is quite annoying.
Title: Firefox 3 Issues
Post by: zampom on June 20, 2008, 07:44:40 PM
Update:

Looks like a fix for this issue is in the works.  According to an answer to my post on the 1Password board:

"This is a quirk caused by how the Restore Form menu is implemented in Firefox. Chad is actually in the middle of coding a replacement for this and I think you will enjoy what he has in store."
Title: Firefox 3 Issues
Post by: Xairbusdriver on June 20, 2008, 10:20:51 PM
Those are some fine and talented programmers! And usually fast, also! smile.gif Highly recommend <1Password>. It's so easy to be much more secure in traveling around the interweb. salute.gif
Title: Firefox 3 Issues
Post by: gunug on June 21, 2008, 07:12:43 AM
I think I'm beginning to see a pattern: Perhaps when you clear history, on Firefox 2 at least, it doesn't totally clear sometimes.  I purposefully cleared the history on the main PC at my house and then added in the places I usually go by going to them and then I upgraded to FF3 and it retained two places in the history that I had cleared. . .is this possible?  I think so; I don't know where it got the place I didn't think I went to on the one MAC!  I'm the only one  that uses either the MAC at home or the MAC at the office (I logout when I'm not on it) and I'm fairly certain that it came up with something in the history that wasn't there before.  Weird!

I didn't see much speed difference on any machine yet; I'll take Zampon's word on the memory gluttony of FF3 because that's the way most software is when it upgrades to a new version.  Maybe they can "fix" that!  I also heard about the FLOCK browser which is FF with social networking and media extensions built in!
Title: Firefox 3 Issues
Post by: zampom on June 22, 2008, 12:15:25 PM
QUOTE(gunug @ Jun 21 2008, 08:12 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
.... then I upgraded to FF3 and it retained two places in the history that I had cleared. . .is this possible?  I think so; I don't know where it got the place I didn't think I went to on the one MAC!


Since FF3 and FF2 use different types of databases/files for certain functions, it might be possible that some of that data you thought you cleared got picked up by FF3 when first launched and started to create its version specific profile files/databases.  Some of the files you have in your profile folder are certainly not needed with FF3 (unless, of course you plan to downgrade to FF2 at some point and didn't keep an archived copy of the profile folder prior to upgrading).  If anyone is interested in seeing which files are used by FF3 and prior versions, you can compare them HERE (listed by function type) or HERE (listed alphabetically).